Try telling that to the Hirsch brothers.
Federal prosecutors working under
Lynch’s supervision put the brothers through a civil forfeiture nightmare. For twenty-seven years, Jeff Hirsch has distributed candy, cigarettes, and other products to convenience stores. His father was in the business before him, and Jeff’s brothers are partners in the business. The brothers work hard, sometimes eleven hour days, to make an honest living. But in May 2012, prosecutors from the Office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York—the office currently run by
Lynch—teamed up with the IRS to seize the business’s entire bank account totaling nearly $450,000 simply because the brothers deposited cash in amounts under $10,000.
The government never alleged that this money was anything other than the lawfully earned proceeds of the brothers’ legitimate business.